Happens in basically every sport, similarly with Messi and Ronaldo

Fans get tribal in sports and become morons

Haha as a Hindu and a big NBA fan, I think it’s similar to the Shiva-Vishnu fights that followers get into while both gods’ stories express deep respect for one another.

Look how long I took for Wilbon to even disclose this. 16 years he held it. Why? Media drama and clicks. Meanwhile how many “goat debate” topics has Wilbon had on his show.

Jordan also had one of the best quotes about the GOAT debate (where he talks about how most of the guys that get talked about never played each other). Shows you how much the fan discussion is worth, imo.

I hope one day we get to see a real sit down between the two. Maybe once Bron retires.

I think the biggest gripe Jordan has with Lebron is he didn’t get to play him during his prime. A challenge he would have liked.

It’s like how Bron literally has Kobe’s face tatted on him but Lebron’s fans think they were enemies. I love LeBron but his stans are the worst.

because NBA fans don’t like basketball they just like 1 player. a true NBA fan is rare i feel like; especially nowadays.

I like them both

It was same with Kobe and Jordan. The two guys were like brothers for each other and yet the fans will never acknowledge the other. That’s the problem with staning players over teams imo. You get too attached to one guy and their all time rankings.

Listen, I don’t know how you expect me to go about my day without letting everyone know Bron is the GOAT and MJ is a failed baseball player. /s

They worship them as gods and live through them. It’s hilarious

I mean look at Kobe and LeBron. They loved each other and you got stans in the r/Lakers sub talking wild all the time saying some crazy shit, especially when LeBron first got to the Lakers. Kobe had to literally put out a statement telling people to relax and let the man take them to the Finals

This is Skip’s ⁹⁄₁₁

I’m from Jordan’s generation and have stanned that dude forever. I go with LeBron being the greatest all around player and floor raiser ever with Jordan being the greatest winner.

They both have given me so much joy over the last 40 years. Blessed to have been able to see and remember both at their peaks.

NBA fans on Reddit at least just want to have their favorite player and be as critical as possible of every other player. The no favorite team, don’t watch games thing is a weird way to be a sports fan, imo, but it’s very popular with Gen Z

Isn’t that the best outcome for them? It sells shoes.

Perfect microcosm of sports fans tbh

Fanatics are what they are.

People see the competition, but they don’t understand, NBA players have far more in common with each other than they do with everyone else

This.

they’re the only ones that can understand what it’s like to be at that level, both in the amount of effort it took and how batshit insane it is being in the limelight like that

makes sense they’d respect the hell out of each other

I’m just glad I got to watch both of their primes

Probably laugh with each other about how much money their rivalry makes for them

I really love their embrace during that one All Star game what was it the 75 greatest players. Just the best I’ve ever seen talking it up

The snippets of the interview he’s done talking about GOAT etc was pretty nice to hear. Only the fucking pitchfork wielding jackass fans have a side to choose. When the one you’re actually for or even against doesn’t give a shit, maybe you shouldn’t be either.

It’s partially because there’s undertones of generational and political differences in the conversation as well.

I bet money after Lebron retires, he’ll be friends with MJ. Can’t do it so easily now while he’s playing.

The toxic fantasies on both sides will have a meltdown 😂

Michael said take it easy on the kid, and we took that personally. 

I’m gonna rip LeBron even HARDER - the media 

I’ll always say it.

These guys know the grind, so to see somebody else sustain that elite workmanship, they want to see them succeed too.

Bleacher: there’s just a little bit of bullshit in all that, right?

ESPN: Major bullshit. He’s a dead man

“But there’s no money in that, Michael!”

lmao

Wilbon sucks. Worst basketball takes place.

The Media - fuck that kid

Not uncommon. Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are friends, much like Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal. Most of these GOAT tier hatred and rivalries are media and fanbase driven.

People tend to forget that their so called rival is one of the few people on the planet who understands in what position they are or were in. Jordan was elite from the get go himself and not long after the best player in the world, he knows that angle.

Im sure it helps that they are really the only two people in the world who can relate to each other. Only those two know the weight they had to carry as the faces of the league and of their generations

“Oh no….anyways.”

FWIW, LeBron wasn’t even in the GOAT debate at that point in his career. He had only made 1 Finals at that point, and only had 2 MVPs.

The bigger debate happening at the time was if Kobe could catch/surpass MJ. He was on his way to a 5th ring, and had reignited the Lakers/Celtics rivalry.

I think MJ would likely still agree that LeBron gets too much hate, but would probably contradict himself by pointing to LeBron’s Finals record compared to his own to defend his legacy.

In 2010, there was no need for MJ to defend his legacy compared to LeBron’s because it wasn’t even a question at that point.

I’m certain it’ll happen at some point. I think LeBron has even alluded to it once, he said something to the effect of “He’ll have more to say to me when I retire”.

Get Jordan on Mind the Game PLEASE

The marketing spectacle would be insane, but am I crazy to think it wouldn’t come close to living up to the hype? LeBron and MJ are icons, but they’re almost studies in contrast, both as players and people, and I’m not sure how they would actually connect.

Jordan was a precision player, technically immaculate footwork, ball fakes, an almost surgical 1-on-1 defender, unstoppable midrange, etc. His mentality was equally distinctive, famously weaponizing perceived slights, building a mythology around individual will. And despite being perhaps the most marketable athlete in sports history, he’s remained curiously aloof: stoic, guarded, not especially interested in pulling back the curtain, etc. 

LeBron is different in almost every dimension. His genius is in team basketball / scheme / systems thinking. He reads the game like a coordinator and looks to create advantages and orchestrate the offense, which has sometimes led to criticism for making the pass instead of the shot. His public persona matches: emotionally available, close with rivals, comfortable being seen as a big kid who loves the game rather than a stone-cold assassin.

I am not trying to shade one way or the other (full transparency, Bron is my GOAT, but I’m genuinely not trying to make this comment about any sort of evaluation or judgement).

I just mean if you put them across from each other in an interview format and what exactly is the conversation? MJ doesn’t really do vulnerability. LeBron doesn’t really do mystique. One built his brand on silence and dominance; the other built his on access and collaboration. A lot of what makes each of them compelling individually might just create dead air between them. A sit-down would get massive numbers but IMP it would be more awkward than people might think.

If the NBA hasn’t already been trying to pull this off then Adam Silver needs to be canned. That would be big.

Make it 2 hrs and do a theatrical release and it would be a box office smash hit

I’ve never seen anything like the hate LeBron got after the decision and 2011 finals. It felt like the entire world hated him

Jordan himself was at least partially scrutinizing Lebron in 2010.

He has that old CBS Interview that I think a lot of people who were watching back then can still at least somewhat remember where he commented on LeBrons decision, “There’s no way, with hindsight, I would’ve ever called up Larry, called up Magic and said, ‘Hey, look, let’s get together and play on one team,’”.

He trys to media soften his answer with, “But that’s … things are different. I can’t say that’s a bad thing. It’s an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys.”. But imo, he still makes his distaste for it at the time very clear with his last words.

Barkley has a quote in the interview as well were he definitely indicates that he also thinks Jordan is scrutinizing Lebron for this, “Mike and I are in 100 percent agreement on this,” Charles Barkley told the Arizona Republic this week. “If you’re the two-time defending NBA MVP, you don’t leave anywhere. They come to you. That’s ridiculous. I like LeBron. He’s a great player. But I don’t think in the history of sports you can find a two-time defending MVP leaving to go play with other people.”.

Jordan was also pretty open about his opinion that LeBron was “special” and stood out from some of the other talent in the League at the time including Kobe in the years prior. So I think this interview definitely had some “You’re too good to be doing this and it lessens you for doing it” messaging to it, which I could easily see meaning a lot to LeBron given how much he does actually appreciate MJ.

One of my favorite sub-plots of every LeBron era Lakers playoff run is the not insubstantial of Lakers fans that are Kobe fans before they’re Laker fans rooting against Bron winning another title as a Laker.

I remember hearing those stupid jokes all the time before he got to Miami: “How come LeBron never picks up the phone when someone calls? Even his phone doesn’t have any RINGS” 😭😭

I think people projected that onto Jordan because of his personality, the “I took that personally” type shit that they assumed he’d be insecure about some people calling another player the GOAT over MJ.

But MJ has been consistent in his opinion going back to the 90s that he doesn’t think there is a GOAT like that because he doesn’t like to compare across eras.

It mostly spawned from the report of Jordan approving the Last Dance doc the day of (or day after?) the 2016 Cavs championship parade. People took that and used it as “proof” that MJ is insecure and hates LeBron getting any kind of GOAT level recognition

The stars today don’t get even 1% of the shit LeBron got before he got a championship

That’s a good thing. That means we’ve learned to be better tbh.

KD who is the closest ever to get that kind of hate still wasn’t even 5% of what LeBron got for joining the Heat lmao

Leaving as a fucking free agent giving the team 9 years and they surround you with dogshit players and people acted like he murdered the entire city of Cleveland

stars today don’t get even 1% of the shit LeBron got

If you mean specifically about championships, then maybe. But KD, Harden, and Westbrook have all been pretty heavily shit on various times since then. KD for going to GSW. Harden for being Hitler. Westbrook for inefficiency/turnovers. SGA gets hate from basically all non-Thunder fans right now.

Don’t get me wrong, prime LeBron hate was something special, but there have been plenty of other heavily hated on superstars after LeBron

Only idiots can look at those nasty ass Cleveland teams and blame LeBron for leaving or coming up short. That cavs FO never did him any favors

I don’t think it’s aways necessarily the fans it’s the shows wanting views.

Unfortunately I was also involved in one of these conversations the other day it is not easy. I hate them because you end up disrespecting a player which just isn’t called for. It’s dumb at that point. These are the greatest in the sport

Depends who. Shaq LOVES Bol Bol

When LeBron’s paid puppet helped write a hit piece about Jordan’s dpoy, was that out of respect?

Not the case at all. Bird literally indicated MJ was the best he’s ever seen in the 80s. He won MVP in 88.

Also the media wasn’t as prevalent then, he was actually more seen as climbing a mountain and getting closer and closer until actually overcoming the pistons. He wasn’t expected to win so soon, the Lakers, Pistons and Celtics were so dominant while MJ’s organization and team were jelling and evolving